! A Question About Art Poem by Michael Shepherd

Our world forgets – has never known, perhaps –
that questions are a treasured magic wand:

the question asked, the answer may, most like, come freshly said
out of a space that’s new alike to teacher and to taught;

your question is today – how factual should I leave
my verse, or should I seek to ‘colour’ it with metaphor? …

this image comes to mind: ‘old master’ in his studio,
famed painter of Madonnas with attendant Child;

demand’s incessant; so he draws the outlines in,
and passes on the canvas to his studio hand;

coloured then, maybe he adds the master’s touch of life -–
the smile of angel’s sweetness on the Madonna’s face;

the glimpse of future in the Christ Child’s eyes;
and off it goes to some great patron’s church,

to comfort all of womanhood in woes and joys,
its colours gleaming candlelit in sacred prayer;

and yet, how connoisseurs may treasure that quick sketch
on scrap of hand-made paper, where the very touch

of sanguine chalk or silverpoint, reveal the immediate mind
of that old master, as it found the new track of the line;

the world will praise, admire, your coloured image of Her face;
but She will see, in pencilled sketch, how love springs from her grace..